Honda Dealer Sends Out Scratch-Off Tickets Where Everyone Is a Winner

Here’s a typo you don’t see every day. A Honda dealer contracted the services of a direct mail marketing and promotions agency. The agency was supposed to send out 50,000 scratch-off tickets, one of which was the grand prize winner—entitling the customer to a cash prize of $1,000.

Sadly for the promotions agency… every ticket was a winner. They sent out about 30,000 of the tickets before anyone noticed the mistake.

No one is quite sure how Force Events Direct Marketing is going to make good on a $30 million mistake. We imagine it’s a little tense around the office this morning.

Yeah, there’s no way I’d take “Sorry, it was a printing error” as an excuse if I had a winning card. Even if the odds aren’t in my favor, there’s no way they could argue that I don’t have any reasonable expectation of winning.

Anyone have an image of the mailer in question? I believe I got one of these also, but it was for a Chevy Dealership. Reading all of the info, it was exactly as you describe in this post, although some of the fine print was misleading as well. It read that the ticket scratch off was in itself was a winner by matching the numbers, but then apparently there was a second part where it was a scam to get you into the dealership to have to match a second number.

It probably won’t end up being quite that big of a deal. not only do many people just throw these away, but i’ve seen some with crazy stipulations like “you have scratch it off in the presence of a dealership employee” or you just scratch off a code and then go to the dealership to match the code with the prize or something. Don’t get me wrong, 30,000 mailers out there is a BIG problem, but IMO maybe half of them will actually be turned into $$$ after the BS fine print stuff is handled.

I doubt that they will have any need to pay. It is plainly obvious that it was a printing error, once someone sees more than one card.

If Wal-Mart accidentally says that a plasma TV is on sale for $45 instead of $4500, it is reasonable that they don’t have to sell them at the price. I don’t know if this would stand up in court, but it seems like there is a defense.

Something like that happened at my dad’s job. They were supposed to print several of those type of tickets and the prices included something like “5 TVs” and “100 Tshirts”. Whoever entered the numbers in the computer that randomized the tickets flipped the numbers. His company had to eat up the cost of buyin the extra 95 TVs.

Not only that, but the recipients of the mail might consider it daily junk mail and toss it. Plus those that do keep it might scratch it off, think they’re a winner, then throw it away not reading the fine print.

This happened a year or so ago in NY with a scratch off contest by the Daily News. The Post went to town with it and encouraged all the “winners” to go to the Daily News office to demand the prize. Legally, the Daily News was off the hook as it was a printing error but I think they made some sort of restitution for PR sake

From time to time, I get those. Oh, yes, it’s definitely a $$$$ cash prize if you win… but only as cashback if you actually buy their gorram car.

I did, however, turn it to my advantage when buying my Matrix. We started at ~$16000. I traded in my old car for ~$3000. Then we haggled. Got it down another $1500 to $11500. I agreed that’s a fair price, agreed to it, got it signed, and whipped out a $2500 cashback coupon they sent me in the mail.

The part about it being an old saying in my country is, in fact, a regrettable fabrication.

This conversation reminds me of Ghostbusters:

Dr Ray Stantz: Everything was fine with our system until the power grid was shut off by dickless here.
Walter Peck: They caused an explosion!
Mayor: Is this true?
Dr. Peter Venkman: Yes it’s true. This man has no dick.

This sounds exactly like one of the shadier travel scams that one runs into in the Caribbean. You get a free “lottery” ticket, you scratch it off, and of course, “You’re a winner!” All you have to do to collect your prize is attend a free sales presentation. If you do, the fine print gets you. You suddenly notice that you’ve won $1000 OR something far less than what you hoped for.

If this is like any of the many car dealership scratch offs I’ve received in the mail before, everyone wins, but to claim your prize you have to buy a car. The prize is usually cash, but in the fine print you see that it is cash off or cash back on a new car.

Some companies that do crazy promotions often have an insurer behind them. i.e. If the Broncos score X by the 4thQ everyone gets a free fridge – and if it actually happens they don’t have an enormous loss.

But in this case I doubt it. They expected to have one winner. Of course I barely even acknowledge ads and fliers in the mail so it would have blew right past my head.

@not_seth_brundle: While not a contract, unilateral promises of a gift can be otherwise enforceable. My business law classes were much too long ago to remember the name or limitations of the common law principal involved, but it’s the same one that prevents one from publicly offering a donation to a charity, and then privately withdrawing the offer after the fact.

@jamesdenver: The ‘win a prize if x event occurs’ is insured under ‘Prize and Indemnity’ insurance, commonly known in the trade as a ‘Hole in One’ policy.

There are other types of insurance for marketing promotions, such as insuring against the probability of your rebate being redeemed at higher than expected percentages. A promotion with a $1000 grand prize is probably not insured individually, but it could fall under the marketing company’s Errors and Omissions insurance.